35+ Diversity and Inclusion Survey Questions (+ Free Template)

Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to outperform their peers financially (McKinsey). But diversity numbers alone do not tell you whether people feel included, valued, and safe. A workforce can look diverse on paper while underrepresented employees experience exclusion daily.

DEI surveys measure the lived experience behind the headcount. They surface gaps between policy and practice that HR dashboards miss. This guide gives you 35+ diversity and inclusion survey questions designed to measure belonging, equity, and inclusion honestly, plus best practices for handling the sensitivity these topics demand.

What you will find in this guide:

• 37 DEI survey questions organized into 6 themes
• Question type and guidance notes for each question
• Why anonymity is non-negotiable for DEI surveys
• Best practices for building trust and getting honest responses
• Common mistakes that undermine DEI survey efforts
• A free, self-hostable survey template for maximum data privacy

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What Is a Diversity and Inclusion Survey?

A diversity and inclusion survey is a structured tool for measuring how employees experience inclusion, belonging, and equity at work. It is not the same as a demographic census. Demographics tell you who works at your company. A DEI survey tells you how those people experience working there.

The core question a DEI survey answers: Do people feel they belong, feel treated fairly, and feel safe being themselves?

Effective DEI surveys measure subjective experience across multiple dimensions: psychological safety, fairness in opportunity, inclusive behaviors from colleagues and managers, representation in leadership, and accessibility. The data reveals whether your stated values match daily reality for every employee, not just the majority.

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Why DEI Surveys Require Special Care

DEI surveys touch on discrimination, identity, power dynamics, and personal safety. The stakes are higher than a typical employee engagement survey, and the methodology needs to reflect that.

Anonymity is non-negotiable. People will not report discrimination, microaggressions, or feeling excluded if they believe their identity can be traced. Use a survey platform that strips identifying metadata from responses. Self-hosting your survey data with a tool like Formbricks gives you full control over where sensitive responses are stored and who can access them.

Small group sizes can identify respondents. If only three women work in the engineering department, reporting DEI results for "women in engineering" effectively identifies those individuals. Never report results for groups smaller than 5. Aggregate small groups into broader categories when necessary.

Social desirability bias is extremely high. People want to appear tolerant and open-minded, even on anonymous surveys. Frame questions around behaviors and experiences rather than attitudes and beliefs to reduce this bias.

Trust must be built before and after the survey. Explain the purpose before launch. Detail how anonymity is guaranteed. After the survey, share aggregate results with all employees and publish a clear action plan. If employees share their experiences and nothing changes, they will not participate next time.

Legal and privacy considerations matter. GDPR applies if you operate in the EU. EEOC guidelines apply in the US. Demographic questions must always be voluntary. Consult legal counsel before deploying DEI surveys, especially across jurisdictions.

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35+ Diversity and Inclusion Survey Questions by Theme

Each question below includes a recommended question type and a guidance note. Use a 5-point Likert scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) for agreement questions. Every question should be optional so respondents can skip anything they are uncomfortable answering.

Belonging and Psychological Safety (Questions 1-7)

Belonging is the foundation of inclusion. These questions measure whether employees feel welcome, safe, and valued for who they are. Pairing these with an employee satisfaction survey provides additional context on how belonging translates into overall workplace experience. Low scores here signal that diversity efforts are not translating into actual inclusion.

1. "I feel like I belong at [company]."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Your headline belonging metric. Track this over time as the primary indicator of inclusion health.

2. "I can be my authentic self at work."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Measures whether employees feel they need to hide parts of their identity. Significant gaps between demographic groups reveal where inclusion is failing.

3. "I feel comfortable sharing my opinions, even if they differ from the majority."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Psychological safety for dissent. If people only feel comfortable agreeing, you have a conformity culture, not an inclusive one.

4. "I feel welcome and valued by my team."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Team-level belonging. Inclusion is experienced most directly within immediate teams, not at the company level.

5. "I feel psychologically safe to take risks and make mistakes."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Psychological safety extends beyond DEI. But underrepresented employees often face higher scrutiny for mistakes, making this question particularly revealing when segmented.

6. "My unique background and perspective are valued here."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Moves beyond tolerance to actual valuing of difference. There is a gap between "people tolerate me" and "people value what I bring because of my background."

7. "I would feel comfortable reporting a DEI concern without fear of retaliation."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Measures trust in reporting mechanisms. Low scores here mean existing issues are going unreported.

Equal Opportunity and Fairness (Questions 8-14)

Fairness in opportunity is where inclusion translates into tangible outcomes. These questions measure whether employees perceive equitable access to advancement, compensation, and resources.

8. "Promotions and advancement are based on merit at [company]."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Perceived fairness of advancement. Large gaps between demographic groups indicate systemic barriers that merit-based language alone does not fix.

9. "I have equal access to opportunities regardless of my background."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Broad opportunity access question. Cross-tabulate with demographics to find where access gaps exist.

10. "Compensation is fair and equitable across the organization."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Pay equity perception. Even if your pay audit shows equity, perception gaps damage trust and retention. If employees believe pay is unfair, the effect on engagement is the same as if it actually were.

11. "The hiring process at [company] is fair and unbiased."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Hiring fairness perception from current employees. Those who participated in or observed hiring have direct insight into whether the process is equitable.

12. "Performance evaluations are fair and consistent."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Evaluation fairness. Research consistently shows that subjective evaluations introduce bias. This question reveals whether employees feel that bias in their experience.

13. "I have equal access to mentorship and sponsorship."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Mentorship and sponsorship are career accelerators. Unequal access compounds over time, creating representation gaps in leadership even when hiring is equitable.

14. "Assignments and projects are distributed fairly across the team."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• High-visibility projects drive career growth. If certain employees consistently get routine work while others get high-profile projects, opportunity is not equal regardless of what policies say.

Inclusive Culture and Behavior (Questions 15-21)

Culture is what happens between policies. These questions measure the day-to-day behaviors that determine whether a workplace is actually inclusive or just says it is.

15. "My manager creates an inclusive environment for the team."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Managers set the tone for inclusion at the team level. This is one of the most actionable questions because you can target manager training based on results.

16. "Colleagues treat each other with respect regardless of differences."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Peer-level inclusion. Respect across difference is the minimum bar for an inclusive culture.

17. "Diverse viewpoints are actively sought in decision-making."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Moves beyond passive inclusion to active inclusion. Are diverse perspectives invited into the room, or merely tolerated when they appear?

18. "I have witnessed or experienced microaggressions at work."

• Type: Likert (Never / Rarely / Sometimes / Often / Very Often) | Essential
• Sensitive but critical. Use a frequency scale rather than agree/disagree. High frequency scores signal a cultural problem that training alone will not fix. Consider following up with an open-ended question for those who respond "Sometimes" or higher.

19. "People are held accountable for non-inclusive behavior."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Accountability separates performative DEI from real DEI. If non-inclusive behavior goes unaddressed, policies are meaningless.

20. "Team meetings are structured so everyone can contribute."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Meeting dynamics reveal power structures. If the same voices dominate every meeting, inclusion is not happening regardless of what the company says.

21. "Cultural and religious differences are respected and accommodated."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Covers practical accommodation: holiday flexibility, dietary considerations at company events, prayer space, and cultural awareness. Low scores often point to specific, fixable gaps.

Leadership and Representation (Questions 22-27)

Representation at the top signals who the organization values. These questions measure whether leadership reflects the workforce and actively champions inclusion.

22. "Leadership reflects the diversity of the organization."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Visible representation in leadership. Employees notice who gets promoted to the top. A leadership team that does not reflect the workforce sends a message about who belongs.

23. "Leaders visibly champion DEI initiatives."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Visible support from the top matters. DEI efforts stall when leadership treats them as HR's responsibility rather than a business priority.

24. "I see people like me in leadership positions."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Personal representation. This is subjective and intentionally so. It captures whether each employee personally feels represented, which varies by identity.

25. "Leadership listens to and acts on DEI feedback."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• The action component. Listening without acting is worse than not asking. This question measures whether previous feedback led to visible change.

26. "Resources (budget, time, people) are allocated to DEI efforts."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Budget reveals priorities. If DEI has no dedicated resources, employees notice the gap between words and investment.

27. "DEI goals are treated with the same priority as business goals."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Strategic integration. When DEI goals are the first things cut during busy periods, employees learn where they actually rank.

Accessibility and Accommodation (Questions 28-31)

Inclusion means everyone can fully participate. These questions cover physical, digital, and logistical accessibility.

28. "The workplace (physical and digital) is accessible to me."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Essential
• Covers both office accessibility and digital tool accessibility. Low scores from specific groups reveal infrastructure gaps that may be invisible to the majority.

29. "Accommodation requests are handled respectfully and promptly."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• The experience of requesting accommodation matters as much as whether the request is granted. If the process feels burdensome or stigmatizing, people stop asking.

30. "I have the flexibility I need to manage personal and professional responsibilities."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Flexibility disproportionately affects caregivers, employees with disabilities, and employees observing religious practices. Gaps in this question reveal whose needs the current policies serve and whose they miss.

31. "Technology and tools provided are accessible to all employees."

• Type: Likert (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) | Recommended
• Digital accessibility. Screen readers, captioning, color contrast, keyboard navigation. If your tools are not accessible, some employees are working with one hand tied behind their back.

Open-Ended and Action Questions (Questions 32-37)

Open-ended questions surface the stories behind the scores. They reveal what structured questions miss and give employees a voice in their own words. Limit open-ended questions to manage respondent fatigue, but always include at least two.

32. "What is one thing [company] does well regarding diversity and inclusion?"

• Type: Open-ended | Essential
• Identifies your strengths from the employee perspective. Protect and amplify what is working.

33. "What is one thing [company] could improve regarding DEI?"

• Type: Open-ended | Essential
• The "one thing" constraint forces prioritization. More actionable than asking for a general list of improvements.

34. "Have you ever considered leaving [company] due to a DEI-related concern?"

• Type: Binary (Yes / No) with optional open-ended follow-up | Essential
• Retention risk indicator. A "yes" here is a signal that should trigger organizational review, not individual follow-up (which would compromise anonymity).

35. "What would make [company] a more inclusive workplace?"

• Type: Open-ended | Recommended
• Forward-looking and solution-oriented. Employees often have practical ideas that leadership has not considered.

36. "Is there anything else you want to share about your experience with DEI at [company]?"

• Type: Open-ended | Recommended
• The catch-all. Always include as the final question. Some of the most important feedback comes from topics you did not think to ask about.

37. "If you could change one policy related to DEI, what would it be?"

• Type: Open-ended | Recommended
• Policy-specific feedback. Points directly to structural changes rather than interpersonal behaviors.

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DEI Survey Best Practices

Getting honest data on sensitive topics requires more care than a standard engagement survey. These practices are not optional if you want results you can trust.

Guarantee anonymity and explain the mechanics. Do not just say "this survey is anonymous." Explain how: responses are not linked to email addresses, results are only reported for groups of 5 or more, no manager sees individual responses. The more specific you are, the more trust you build. Self-hosting your survey with Formbricks lets you guarantee data stays within your infrastructure.

Make every question optional. People should be able to skip any question they are uncomfortable answering. Forced responses on sensitive topics produce unreliable data and erode trust. An unanswered question gives you more honest information than a coerced answer.

Run annually with pulse checks in between. A comprehensive annual DEI survey provides trendable data. Quarterly pulse checks (3-5 questions) let you monitor specific initiatives without waiting a full year. Do not survey more frequently than quarterly to avoid fatigue.

Share aggregate results with all employees. Transparency is essential. Publish the overall findings, the themes that emerged, and the action plan with timelines. Employees who shared vulnerable feedback deserve to see what the organization will do about it. For a detailed framework, see our guide on closing the feedback loop.

Create action plans with accountability and timelines. Each identified theme needs an owner, a specific action, a timeline, and a measure of success. "We will improve inclusion" is not an action plan. "VP of People will launch inclusive meeting training for all managers by Q3 with 90% completion target" is.

Do not run a DEI survey unless you are prepared to act. Running a survey, collecting painful truths, and doing nothing is worse than never asking. It signals that the organization does not care despite claiming to. If you are not ready to invest in change, wait until you are.

Benchmark against your own history, not just external data. External benchmarks provide context, but your most valuable comparison is against your previous survey. Track progress over time. Celebrate improvements and investigate declines.

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Common DEI Survey Mistakes

These mistakes are specific to DEI surveys and can undermine both data quality and employee trust.

Running surveys without guaranteed anonymity. If employees can be identified, they will not disclose negative experiences. Use a GDPR-compliant survey tool that strips identifying metadata, and communicate the anonymity protections clearly.

Reporting results for small groups. If your company has 4 nonbinary employees and you report DEI results for "nonbinary employees," you have effectively identified those individuals. Set a minimum group size of 5 for any reported segment. Aggregate smaller groups into broader categories.

Asking demographic questions without explaining why. Employees are understandably wary of sharing identity information with their employer. Explain that demographics enable you to identify disparities across groups and that answering is entirely voluntary. Without this context, demographic questions feel invasive and reduce participation.

Surveying without follow-up action. The fastest way to destroy trust is to ask employees about their experiences with discrimination and inclusion, then do nothing with the data. If you are not prepared to share results and take action, do not launch the survey. Surveys create expectations that inaction violates.

Using leading or politically loaded language. Avoid language that signals a "correct" answer. "Do you agree that [company] is an inclusive workplace?" is leading. "I feel included at [company]" using a balanced Likert scale is neutral. Avoid jargon that may alienate employees unfamiliar with DEI terminology.

Only surveying underrepresented groups. DEI surveys should go to all employees. Inclusion is experienced by everyone, not just underrepresented groups. Surveying only specific groups makes those employees feel singled out and gives you an incomplete picture. Segmented analysis after collection reveals group-level patterns without targeted distribution.

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Free DEI Survey Template

Building a DEI survey from scratch takes time, and getting the sensitivity right matters. Formbricks offers free, open-source survey templates you can customize and deploy in minutes, including an employee engagement survey template that pairs well with DEI-specific questions.

For DEI surveys specifically, data privacy is not just a best practice. It is a prerequisite for honest responses. Formbricks supports self-hosting, meaning sensitive DEI survey data never leaves your infrastructure. No third-party servers, no external data processors, just your data on your terms.

How to get started:

1. Sign up at formbricks.com (free tier available, no credit card required)
2. Choose a template or build from the questions in this guide
3. Configure anonymity settings and skip logic
4. Distribute via link, website embed, or in-app survey
5. Analyze aggregate results and share findings with your organization

To get the most from your results, pair your DEI survey with strategies for increasing survey response rates and a framework for analyzing feedback systematically.

Get Your Free DEI Survey Template →

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Frequently Asked Questions